


Emotional Overload

by AutisticWriter



Series: Writer's Month 2019 [9]
Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Anger, Angst, Bad Ending, Character Death, Child Death, Crying, Ficlet, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Lies, Manipulation, Prompt Fic, Swearing, Unhappy Ending, Writer's Month 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 22:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20235301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: As Dojima sits at his daughter’s bedside, he struggles to process her sudden death.Prompt 9: Time Travel





	Emotional Overload

His daughter is dead.

That is the only thing Ryotaro can think as he sits at her bedside, staring at Nanako. The doctor switches off the flat lining ECG, but he still hears that horrific droning bleep in his ears. His head pounds, his injuries throbbing, but he barely notices.

He just stares at her. She looks so peaceful, so quiet and still. She might as well be asleep.

But she isn’t.

She is dead.

Yu saved her, but it was too late. Ryotaro didn’t even get to her room in time, arriving when the ECG bleeped and the doctor sighed and apologised and Yu and his friends broke down. And now he is alone in the room with her, staring at her.

She died.

Chisato died, and Nanako was all he had left. But now Nanako has died, and he has nobody.

Does he even have a reason to live anymore?

Ryotaro sighs, the sound weak and shaky. Everything hurts, but the pain turns to dull numbness. His head spins, and he doesn’t realise he started crying until salty tears dribble into his mouth. He shudders for breath, wanting to vomit or scream or do something…

But he can’t.

“Nanako…” he whispers, staring at her.

She will never look at him again. She will never greet him with an adorable smile and a cheerful tone. She will never hug him again.

He bows his head, the sobs overtaking him. He just cries, shuddering for breath as tears stream from his eyes, pain stabbing at his chest like a heart attack. He hasn’t cried like this since the night after Chisato’s funeral, when he took a bath and sobbed and sobbed, splashing his face in a pathetic attempt to convince himself he wasn’t really crying.

He just cries.

How can his little girl be dead?

If only there was a way to turn back time, to reverse time and stop himself being stupid and hauling Yu to the station and leaving Nanako home alone and ready to be taken. He would deal with Yu and his weird letter at home and keep Nanako safe and stop that bastard kidnapping her when he knocked on the door.

If only you could turn back time, to travel back and undo the horrifc mistakes of the past.

But you can’t turn back time. You are stuck with it, no matter how horrific life may be.

“Dojima-san?”

A knock on the door makes him flinch, and Ryotaro looks up. He scrubs at his face, but can’t stop the hitching breaths and the tears that well up in his eyes. Most people, he would just yell at and tell them to leave him alone. But he knows that voice.

The door slides open, and Adachi pokes his head into the room. He stares at Ryotaro, a weird mix of pity and sadness crossing his face. Adachi may annoy him, but his junior partner has always been there for him through the serial murder case, and he considers Adachi a friend (not that he would ever say that).

So he doesn’t yell for Adachi to piss off, instead staring at him.

“Oh, Dojima-san, I, I’m so sorry,” Adachi says, taking slow, tentative steps into the room. “Poor Nanako-chan…”

“If you’re just here for pity, get out.”

“N-No, I’ve got news,” Adachi says. He looks down at Nanako and swallows, his bottom lip twitching slightly. He takes his focus from Nanako, staring at Ryotaro instead. “Uh… Namatame is missing.”

“What?!”

Adachi flinches backwards. “He’s not in his room. We think he might have… jumped out the window.”

Ryotaro just sits there, and then the anger explodes out of him. “DAMN IT!”

“D-Dojima-san?” Adachi splutters.

Not only did the bastard kill his daughter, but Namatame has either escaped or offed himself, getting away with the awful things he did. Ryotaro wanted to see him hang for this.

“You better find him, dead or alive!” he snaps, and Adachi takes a step backwards. “He has to be punished. He can’t get away with what he…” He trails off, staring at Nanako, and his face crumples.

More sobs escape him, pitiful noises that leave him mortified as well as agonised. If he could turn back time, he could have stopped the bastard before he killed Yamano, stopping this whole horrific turn of events. He could go back and beat the shit out of Namatame to get some sort of revenge.

Adachi just stands there, watching, also upset but unable to understand the depths of Ryotaro’s despair. “Dojima-san…”

“Find him, Goddammit!”

Ryotaro reaches out and grabs Adachi’s messy tie, yanking it towards him. Adachi staggers forwards, hands going up to his neck to prevent himself getting strangled. He gasps, nearly falling onto Ryotaro, and stares at him with panicky eyes.

“Dojima-san, what the…?”

“Find him, Adachi,” he says through gritted teeth, tears still running down his cheeks. “You have to find him. I have to make the bastard pay for what he did. I have to get revenge… I have to… for Nanako…”

Adachi coughs, rubbing his neck, and stares at Ryotaro, unable to move with his hand on his tie. “O-Of course, sir.”

Ryotaro groans, clenching his other hand into a tight, trembling fist. And he just cries, unable to cope with the grief.

How will he carry on after this? Without Nanako…

**Author's Note:**

> If you want me to write you a short fic, drop in a prompt at my [personal prompt meme](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/AutisticWriters_Personal_Prompt_Meme)!
> 
> [My tumblr](https://anautisticwriter.tumblr.com/).


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